The irony of how time changes opinions has become abundantly clear to me over the past three months, especially in light of last week’s landmark victory in regards to the proposed compulsory acquisition of land held within the Shoalwater Bay area.
The army wants to expand its operations, which I feel we all believe is important if we need to protect our borders.
This is a lot like producers that want to expand their operation – it has been going on for ever and is unlikely to change.
But before any enterprise expands they generally have the property they are on in reasonable shape and running efficiently or close to its potential production capacity.
Our defence force is, or at least I hope it is, full of intelligent individuals that avoid conflict where possible and if they engage in conflict they ensure it is warranted and necessary.
One could conclude they should be utilising near to 100 per cent of the current training ground. If not there would have to be a good reason why not.
It has become clear that the one million acres of land already owned by the army has been severely mismanaged.
Now this is where the bell starts ringing, as the training area, unlike the surrounding grazing areas, hasn't had anywhere near the vegetation management, rendering large areas useless. Why not, would be the most relevant question.
Are our state’s stringent laws on vegetation management having anything to do with it?
I believe as producers we have to demand answers. We can’t expect to keep land up to the defence force, because it is in effect just purchasing land to let it degrade until rendered useless.
Surely money would be more wisely spent clearing and regenerating the land that it already owns? Leaving the current generation of graziers to continue tending their land and do what they do best?
This brings me to the question of feeding the world, and why we have made such a grand free trade agreement with Singapore, through our willingness to assist in the training of their troops.
What sort of debacle have we created, when we can't even manage the land effectively for them to train on, let alone to grow food and protein to feed their troops?
Let’s remember the way this debate rolled out, with a land owner wanting/needing to expand, then a massive backlash from the affected occupants (rightly so).
Loud support from the Greens was followed by the current state government aiming to protect the environment and jobs.
I'm sure the next time we see those two groups in our neck of the woods, they will be saying, we need to protect the woods, not the jobs.
- Will Wilson, Calliope Cattle Co.